For the second year in a row, a bunch of disgruntled “conservative” sf readers and writers are attempting to destroy science fiction’s Hugo Awards by nominating slates of works that are, variously: rabid racist tracts; works by their ideological opponents; tepid military sf; works by bystanders; and weird porn by Chuck Tingle, a master of the form, who has nothing to do with any of this.
Until now. When Tingle – who publishes “bizarre niche erotica” in great volume – discovered that his book Space Raptor Butt Invasion had been promoted to the Hugo ballot by spoilers hoping to discredit the award, he sprang into action. He created a new title, especially aimed at the “Puppies” (the two groups who want to kill the Hugos call themselves “Rabid Puppies” and “Sad Puppies” for fantastically tedious reasons you can look up for yourself if you care to): “Slammed In The Butt By My Hugo Award Nomination.”
Then Tingle took to Twitter, writing an amazing series of GIF-illustrated tweets, mocking Vox Day, avowed white supremacist and leader of the “Rabid Puppies.”
The crowning glory of Tingle’s campaign, though, was hisannouncement that his Hugo Award, should he win it, would be accepted by Zoe Quinn, the reigning bogeywoman of the Gamergate/neoreactionary right. In other words: every time a “Puppy” casts a vote for Tingle’s work, they cast a vote for giving Zoe Quinn a podium from which to address the entire World Science Fiction Convention about the importance of diversity and representation in fiction.
He is now using the website to promote N.K. Jemison, Zoe Quinn, public libraries, and an LGBT health organization. Also, a very large shirtless picture of Channing Tatum.
If you, my beloved followers, would like to experience Chuck Tingle for yourself, I give you this live reading of his latest work at PenguinCon.
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Here’s what fanfiction understands that the Puppies don’t: inversion and subversion don’t ruin the story – they just give you new ways to tell it, and new tools to tell it with. Take a platonic relationship and make it romantic; there’s a story in that. Take a romantic relationship and make it platonic; there’s a story in that, too. Take a human and make her a werewolf; take a werewolf and make him human. Don’t try and sidle up on hurt/comfort like it’s something you’re ashamed to be indulging in; embrace the tropes until you have their mastery. Take a gang of broken souls surviving the apocalypse and make them happy in high school; take a bunch of funny, loving high school kids and shove them in the apocalypse. Like Archimedes, fanfic writers find the soul, the essence of what makes the characters real, and use it as a fulcrum on which to pivot entire worlds, with inversion/subversion as their lever of infinite length.
At the presentation each August, the Gods with the rockets in their hands have been joined by Goddesses and those of other ethnicities and genders and sexual orientations, many of whom want to tell stories about more than just spaceships.
Early this year, that shift sparked a backlash: a campaign, organized by three white, male authors, that resulted in a final Hugo ballot dominated by mostly white, mostly male nominees. While the leaders of this two-pronged movement—one faction calls itself the Sad Puppies and the other the Rabid Puppies—broke no rules, many sci-fi writers and fans felt they had played dirty, taking advantage of a loophole in an arcane voting process that enables a relatively few number of voters to dominate. Motivated by Puppygate, meanwhile, a record 11,300-plus people bought memberships to the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention in Spokane, Washington, where the Hugo winners were announced Saturday night.
With so much at stake, more people than ever forked over membership dues (at least $40) in time to be allowed to vote for the 2015 Hugos. Before voting closed on June 31, 5,950 people cast ballots (a whopping 65 percent more than had ever voted before).
Not a single Puppy-endorsed candidate took home a rocket. In the five categories that had only Puppy-provided nominees on the ballot—Best Novella, Best Short Story, Best Related Work, and Best Editor for Short and for Long Form—voters instead preferred “No Award.”
